Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security officials are considering at least two major policy changes to
scale back deportations of immigrants in the country illegally to comply with President Barack
Obama’s order for “more humane” enforcement efforts, officials said yesterday.

The first change would ease or stop deportations of foreigners who have no criminal convictions
other than immigration violations. If approved, deportation efforts would chiefly target people who
have been charged or convicted in court and pose a potential threat.

Thousands who have overstayed visas or entered the country illegally are deported each year,
including parents of children who are citizens but have broken no other laws.

Another change under consideration would scale back a controversial program known as Secure
Communities. It allows immigration authorities to ask that immigrants in the country illegally be
held in local jails until they can be transferred to federal facilities for deportation.

The proposed change would limit the local detentions and focus only on people with criminal
records.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity a day after the White House said Jeh Johnson, the
secretary of Homeland Security, was ordered to review deportation efforts.